Funeral for murder victim Nikitta

The boyfriend of murdered mother-to-be Nikitta Grender has carried her coffin into the church for her funeral.

Ryan Mayes, 18, was joined as a pallbearer by the teenager's father, Paul, and other family members.

Around 500 people packed into St John's Church Maindee, in Newport, Gwent, South Wales, for the service. Many wore pink out of respect for the heavily pregnant 19-year-old, who was going to call her unborn daughter Kelsey-May.

She was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of her burnt-out flat in Broadmead Park, Liswerry, Newport, on February 5.

The church was so crowded for the hour-long funeral that many mourners had to stand at the back.

The Rev Helen Hall, who led the service, told those gathered on Wednesday: "We are here to say a formal goodbye to a happy, lively young woman and her much-loved and much-wanted baby. If the world was as it should be, and as our loving God desires it to be, there would be no need for a funeral today.

"Both Nikitta and Kelsey-May had everything to live for. There was so much that they could have done and been and given. Their time on Earth should not have been so cruelly cut short.

"We are here in the shadow of a terrible injustice and act of evil and we cannot pretend otherwise."

Mr Mayes was comforted by friends and family after arriving at the church ahead of the service.

Nikitta's younger brother Luke was hugged by their mother Marcia as he wiped away tears with a white handkerchief.